The Doctor, Susan, Ian and Barbara find themselves on Earth in the
mid-22nd century... and the Daleks have invaded. Now the streets of London
are stalked by the Daleks' mind-controlled human puppets, the Robomen,
while more terrible monsters roam the countryside. Allying themselves with
a small band of freedom fighters, the companions try to reclaim the planet
for humankind, and discover the true purpose of the Daleks' mining
operations in Bedfordshire.

Production

Even before their first serial had ended, the Daleks had become a
phenomenon. Ratings for Doctor Who rose by nearly two-thirds over
the course of The Daleks, resulting in the
Doctor Who production team asking the monsters' creator, Terry
Nation, to stop work on a historical tale, “The Red Fort”, and
instead pen the science-fiction adventure The Keys Of
Marinus at short notice. By the end of February 1964, less than a
month after the broadcast of the final episode of their debut serial,
there were already plans afoot to bring back the Daleks. Nation had agreed
to write a sequel in which the Daleks invade Earth, and this was
provisionally scheduled to be the final serial of the recording block. On
March 17th, Nation was commissioned to write “The Daleks”,
which shortly thereafter was retitled “The Invaders” and then
“The Return Of The Daleks”.

As the end of the production season neared, the thoughts of producer
Verity Lambert and story editor David Whitaker turned to Doctor
Who's future. It was already decided that there would be a break in
transmission following The Reign Of Terror,
meaning that “The Return Of The Daleks” would be the second
story of the programme's second season. Lambert and Whitaker were
particularly concerned about the composition of their regular cast, and
considered -- but eventually rejected -- writing out Barbara in order to
reduce the cast size.

Carole Ann Ford felt that Susan was not being properly
developed as a character

Meanwhile, Carole Ann Ford had grown unhappy on Doctor Who. She
felt that Susan was not being properly developed as a character, and
nothing had been done with her own suggestions, such as Susan having a
crush on Ian. Ford's husband -- who was acting as her agent -- had
unsuccessfully attempted to have her released from her contract
prematurely. With this in mind, Lambert and Whitaker decided to replace
Susan with another teenaged girl; the change would occur in “The
Return Of The Daleks”. On July 30th, an exit scenario for Susan
was written, which Nation then incorporated into his script for episode
six.

Even as Nation's work on “The Return Of The Daleks” was
progressing, Lambert was getting nowhere in her efforts to secure a second
recording block for Doctor Who. By the middle of August, Chief of
Programmes Donald Baverstock had only granted Lambert an extra four-part
serial. Lambert was unwilling to write Susan out of Doctor Who if
the series was to end a month later, however, and therefore urgently
needed a firm decision from Baverstock: either further episodes would be
authorised, in which case the new companion would have to be hurriedly
cast, or else Doctor Who would end with the four-part serial, in
which case a suitable set of scripts would need to be commissioned, the
stars' contracts amended, and the end of “The Return Of The
Daleks” suitably rewritten. Finally, on August 14th, Baverstock
agreed to a thirteen-week extension beyond the Dalek sequel.

By this time, Nation had included in his scripts the character of a
teenaged rebel named Saida, an English girl of Indian descent who was
revealed as Dortmun's daughter after his death. Saida stowed away aboard
the TARDIS at the story's conclusion, becoming the new companion.
Subsequently, this character evolved into the Caucasian Jenny -- one of
several changes made to the serial prior to recording. David Somheim's
surname became Archer and finally Campbell. Baker was originally named
Roger Krish, while Larry Madison's first name was initially Robbie. The
setting moved forward by a century, and so references to the original
Dalek attack occurring in 1980 were deleted. The Robomen were conceived as
wearing only a small disc on their temple, with wires snaking into the
hair. Instead of crocodiles, David and Susan were menaced by mutated
humans in the sewers. Wells' role was originally much smaller -- he was
freed from the Dalek shuttle by Ian and left to tend to other escapees.
Three old women lived in the shanty in the woods, rather than the
degenerate mother and daughter. The final episode saw the Daleks attempt
to kill all their slaves by trapping them in the mines, which will be
deluged with lava when the bombs explode.

Pamela Franklin was selected to play Jenny until it was
decided that she would not join the TARDIS crew

On August 17th, Lambert selected Pamela Franklin to play Jenny.
Unfortunately, at the same time Lambert was facing resistance from her
other stars, who were unhappy with the new contracts tendered for the
additional episodes. With the future of Doctor Who therefore still
in doubt, Lambert elected to proceed with the elimination of Susan from
the series in “The Return Of The Daleks”, but asked Nation to
reduce the importance of Jenny in the scripts, with the character no
longer joining the TARDIS crew. The diminished role would eventually be
played by Ann Davies; Franklin would go on to acclaim in films such as
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie and The Legend Of Hill House.
With the eventual negotiation of acceptable contracts for William
Hartnell, William Russell and Jacqueline Hill -- as well as the guarantee
of another thirteen weeks from Baverstock -- Susan's replacement would now
be introduced in the serial following “The Return Of The
Daleks”.

The four original Dalek casings constructed for The
Daleks were used again in Serial K; two of these had to be
borrowed back from Barnardo's children's home in Stepney, to which they
had been donated following the broadcast of the original serial. Two new
Daleks were also constructed. For the first time, Nation's scripts
indicated different levels of authority amongst the Daleks, and so one of
the casings was painted in black livery to serve as the Dalek Supreme. The
most significant design change was the addition of a radio dish on the
back of the Daleks to explain why they were not confined to the metal
floors of their city on Skaro, as in The
Daleks.

Richard Martin had most recently directed the first episode of Inside The Spaceship, and was originally
intended to direct the preceding serial, Planet Of
Giants, before being switched over to “The Return Of The
Daleks”. Production began with four days of location filming on
August 23rd, 25th, 27th and 28th; this was the first significant
out-of-studio excursion for Doctor Who, the only previous exterior
shooting having been three brief scenes for The Reign
Of Terror. In particular, this was the first time that any of the
regular cast appeared on location.

Designer Spencer Chapman raised the ire of the police when
he put Dalek markings on some London monuments

The first three filming days were all spent at various locales throughout
London. A number of familiar landmarks were used to establish the Daleks'
dominance of the city, with designer Spencer Chapman raising the ire of
the police when he used blanco to put Dalek markings on some of the
monuments. The museum which served as the rebels' hideout was actually
the Palace of Industry in Wembley; road scenes were also filmed at nearby
Third Way. The dockland scenes were enacted at the disused Wood Lane
Underground Station, while warehouse material was performed at St
Katharine's Docks and Butler's Wharf in Southwark. The segments at the
river were recorded at Hammersmith Bridge and Kew Bridge in Hounslow. The
wharf used was Irongate Wharf at Tower Hamlets. August 28th then took cast
and crew to John's Hole at Stone, near Dartford in Kent, which served as
the Dalek mine. This was the first of many instances of a quarry being
used as a location for Doctor Who.

By the time episode one was recorded on September 18th, the serial had
been renamed The Dalek Invasion Of Earth (the title “The
Daleks In Europe” may also have been considered). The taping of
World's End coincided with the programme's switch to a new studio
home, Riverside 1. Doctor Who's original facilities, Lime Grove D,
had rapidly proven to be too cramped and archaic, and in recent months the
show had bounced back and forth between several different studios while
awaiting the availability of Riverside 1. This was the venue for all six
episodes which, as usual, were recorded on consecutive Fridays.

On October 2nd, during camera rehearsals for Day Of Reckoning,
Hartnell's back was injured during the scene where he was carried on a
stretcher down the Dalek saucer ramp. The actors playing the Robomen and
the Dalek prisoners had been instructed to break step while traversing the
ramp but had failed to do so. This weakened the integrity of the
structure, causing it to collapse. Although Hartnell was well enough
to continue with the day's shooting, he was still experiencing pain days
later. After correspondence from Hartnell's lawyer, the BBC agreed to pay
for an x-ray, which fortunately indicated no permanent trauma to the
spine.

William Hartnell's back was injured during rehearsals for
episode three, so he was released from part four with pay

It was agreed that Hartnell would be released from the recording of The
End Of Tomorrow on October 9th, with pay. Fortunately, the Doctor
appeared in only one scene anyway, making it straightforward to modify
the script. Originally, it was he who noticed the Dalek firebomb; in the
recorded version, it was David who made the discovery. The Doctor instead
collapsed at the very start of the scene, and the dialogue written for him
was shared between David and Susan. Edmund Warwick was hired to double for
the absent Hartnell. The star was able to return for part five, The
Waking Ally. Because the General Election had taken place the day
before recording, no videotape machines were available; consequently, this
episode was recorded on 35mm film.

The completion of Flashpoint on October 23rd marked the end of
Doctor Who's first recording block, and also the conclusion of
Carole Ann Ford's tenure on the show. Ford thereafter acted primarily in
the theatre, although her on-screen roles included the movie The Great
St Trinian's Bank Robbery and TV series such as What Ever Happened
To The Likely Lads?. Ford was injured while making a commercial in
1977 and she retired from acting to raise her family. Her subsequent work
has mainly been restricted to Doctor Who-related roles, including
returning as Susan for the anniversary specials The
Five Doctors in 1983 and Dimensions In
Time in 1993. She also played Susan in the Doctor Who
Unbound audio plays Auld Mortality and A Storm Of
Angels. Ford additionally appeared in Shakedown: Return Of The
Sontarans and other direct-to-video productions.

The Dalek Invasion Of Earth was also the end of David Whitaker's
time as the programme's story editor, although he was already committed to
writing the next serial in production, The
Rescue. Whitaker continued to contribute scripts to Doctor
Who in addition to his involvement in a variety of spin-offs. The
latter included scribing the stage play The Curse Of The Daleks,
ghostwriting the TV Century 21 Dalek comic strip for more than one
hundred weekly installments, and authoring two of the three Doctor
Who novelisations published by Frederick Muller (of The Daleks and his own The
Crusade). Whitaker maintained his writing career until his death
from cancer on February 4th, 1980.

The Dalek Invasion Of Earth
was adapted as the Peter Cushing film Daleks:
Invasion Earth 2150 AD

Whitaker also helped write the screenplay for both Dalek films produced by
Milton Subotsky in association with Aaru Pictures. As with Dr Who And
The Daleks (the big-screen version of The
Daleks), the Aaru adaptation of The Dalek Invasion Of
Earth, titled Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD, starred Peter
Cushing as human scientist “Dr Who”. It premiered on July
22nd, 1966.

Whitaker's replacement as story editor was Dennis Spooner, who had started
trailing Whitaker on August 6th; Spooner had recently written The Reign Of Terror. The change-over formally
occurred on October 31st, by which time Whitaker had already completed
much of the groundwork for the early portion of the second recording
block. Also winding down his involvement in Doctor Who around this
time was Mervyn Pinfield, who had been serving as the programme's
associate producer as well as directing a handful of episodes. It was now
felt that Lambert had enough experience as a producer to carry on without
additional supervision, and so the associate producer post was abandoned.
Pinfield -- who would still be credited on-screen for two more serials --
continued directing (including episodes Doctor Who) until his
retirement from television in the mid-Sixties. He passed away soon
thereafter.

Although the Daleks had been very popular after their initial outing, the
fortuitous scheduling of The Dalek Invasion Of Earth during
November and December 1964 incited a surge of Dalek-related hype
throughout the holiday season. Christmas 1964 saw dozens of items of Dalek
(and, occasionally, Doctor Who) merchandise invade stores. Riding
this wave, The Dalek Invasion Of Earth became the series' most
successful serial to date, hitting highs of 12.4 million for both the
second and sixth episodes and -- more notably -- making Doctor
Who one of the week's Top Ten television programmes.